The National Cemetery in Terezín

The Database of the People Buried at the Terezín National Cemetery

Author: Eva Němcová

The database contains data of 1,133 victims of Nazi persecution buried at the Terezín National Cemetery. Out of the total number of graves (2,386), only half are marked with names since in many cases the remains found in mass graves after the war could not be identified. Some graves are named only symbolically.

The database could be compiled thanks to the file of the buried people at the National Cemetery kept by the Department of Documentation of the Terezín Memorial. Its origin is not clear; there is no document on its formation. Most likely, it was created by the Association for the Upkeep of the National Cemetery which took care of the National Cemetery in the early post-war years.

Data in the database were compared with the inscriptions on the tombstones and many minor inconsistencies were found – variations in names, dates of birth and death. The data were verified and specified as much as possible according to the available sources, mainly those kept in the collections of the Terezín Memorial. As far as possible, inscriptions on tombstones shall also be gradually repaired if they show any inaccuracies.

Despite all the efforts, the Database of the People Buried at the Terezín National Cemetery is not faultless due to incompleteness and imperfection of some sources. This has to be taken into account. When searching for a specific name, only the word root with the symbol * may be used (for example Kertes, Kert* - *ert*).

The area of the National Cemetery can be divided into several sections (see attached plan). Graves in different sections are always numbered starting with numeral 1. Identified victims are in the sections 1, 2, 6, 7 and 8. Graves with unidentified remains are marked only with numbers.

Characteristics of Each Section of the National Cemetery

Section 1

This section has become the foundation of the National Cemetery. At the National Funeral on September 16, 1945, the remains of the victims exhumed from six mass graves found on the ramparts of the Small Fortress were reburied in front of the Fortress. In these mass graves were the bodies of the inmates from the Terezín Police Prison who died between March 1 and May 7, 1945, and a few prisoners from the evacuation transports which arrived in the Small Fortress at the end of the war. The exhumation of the mass graves took place from August 30 to September 4, 1945. More than 200 bodies could be exactly identified, several more graves were marked with names only symbolically at the request of the bereaved.

There were originally 601 graves in the section 1, but the tombstone No. 3 was cancelled after the remains had been re-exhumed and taken to the native village of the deceased.

Section 2

28 graves with the remains of the Terezín Police Prison inmates and persons from evacuation transports exhumed from the mass graves in the Terezín municipal cemetery in April 1946. These prisoners died in the Terezín hospital in May 1945. The cemetery book disclosed only part of the victims' names. 18 graves in this section are named only symbolically, as identification of the victims was no longer possible.

Section 3

A pylon marks the spot where the remains of the inmates who had died in the Litoměřice concentration camp were buried.

Section 4

The central pylon marks the spot where the ashes of 52 inmates of the Terezín Police Prison who were shot dead during the last execution in the Small Fortress on May 2, 1945 were buried.

Section 5

Two pylons mark the spot containing the ashes of several thousands of victims cremated in Terezín. Originally, the ashes were thrown into holes near the crematorium.

Section 6

79 graves with the remains exhumed from the mass graves near Lovosice in April 1946. These were mostly victims from passing evacuation transports from the liquidated concentration camps in the Reich. Their identification was no longer possible. In 1974, during the revitalization of the National Cemetery, three urns were moved to this section from a different part of the cemetery and buried near these graves. One of them contains the ashes of a Terezín Police Prison inmate (the name is known), other two probably belonged to Terezín Ghetto inmates whose ashes had not been for some reason disposed of in autumn 1944.

Section 7

789 graves with the remains of inmates from the Litoměřice concentration camp exhumed from the mass graves in the former camp area in April 1946. Identification of the deceased was no longer possible; only 13 graves were symbolically marked at the request of the bereaved.

Section 8

886 urn graves containing the ashes of the inmates of the Terezín Ghetto who died from January 1 to March 15, 1945 and during the typhus outbreak at the end of the war or after the Ghetto´s liberation. Many of them were prisoners from the evacuation transports that arrived in the Terezin Ghetto after April 20, 1945. In addition, there is one grave of a person who died in the Terezín Ghetto in 1942 (the urn had been buried in the grave from which the urn with ashes of another victim was exhumed in 1964 at the request of the bereaved). There are 865 graves marked with names in this section.

Section 9

A pylon under which are buried the ashes of some 3,000 victims of the Terezín Ghetto found near the Nazi underground factory in Litoměřice in January 1958. They were buried there in 1944 when cinerary urns, originally kept in the Columbarium of the Terezín Ghetto, were being liquidated prior to the arrival of a delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross. (A larger part of the ashes from the urns were then thrown into the river Ohře near Terezín).

Section 10

In 1955, 3 coffins containing the ashes from 140 cinerary urns were buried there; until then they had been kept in the Small Fortress.